It is a punishment that all young pupils are familiar with.
Do something wrong, then write lines to make up for your mischief.
But is 1,000 lines too much?
That's the burning question after a teacher dished it out as punishment to a Primary 4 pupil who allegedly called his classmate "sotong".
It means squid in Malay and is used in Singlish to describe someone as inept or in a world of his own.
Chinese daily Lianhe Wanbao reported that the mother made her son write only 100 lines, and then told him to stop.
The son has denied calling his classmate names, the report said.
Reaction was mixed among people we spoke to. Some people, including Stomper Thiyanes, thought it was too harsh a punishment.
He posted a photo on citizen journalism website Stomp of the teacher's instructions to the student, telling him to write "I will not call my friends names by tomorrow"
He wrote: "Punishing a child when he or she makes a mistake is acceptable but I think this is way too much.
"Punishment is to make a child know his or her wrongdoing.
"This is definitely not the right way."
Mrs Marietta Koh, an educator at a tuition centre, who is in her mid-40s, said: "One thousand lines is just unreasonable. It's a really old school punishment, not a lot of teachers do that anymore.
"I believe that the penalty should always fit the crime, and the child only called his classmate 'sotong', which only means blur. It's not that severe," she said.
She understands that parents might overreact and pamper their children, but said that in this case, the mother had every right to be upset.
"The teacher shouldn't have set so many lines, it's a waste of time. I understand you want to send a strong signal that it's not good to call people names, but getting the child to apologise and acknowledge that he was wrong will be more useful."
Mrs J. Ho, who has a daughter in primary school, said the punishment was uncalled for.
She said: "If you really need to punish students, why not get them to do something more useful?"
She added that it would be more productive if the teacher got both children to talk and make up.
"If the boy really didn't call his friend any names, he'll be resentful. Even if he did, there might still be bad feelings between both kids after writing the lines."
She thinks that even if writing lines are required, 1,000 is too much for a Primary 4 child.
"How to finish writing and complete his homework at the same time?" she said.
However, Ms Frances Yeo, a psychologist at Novena Medical Center, said: "I don't think it's too harsh, this punishment won't cause any negative effect on the student getting punished.
"The school is right to do something about it."
Ms Yeo said that targeting the problem and punishing the student will teach him that he did something wrong.
"In fact, I think calling someone names might give the victim more negative psychological effects than writing lines will," she said.
But Ms Yeo also thinks that 1,000 lines might be a too much for a primary school pupil to write.
Retired school teacher Ho Koon Loon said: "Writing lines is one way of punishing students." He has taught for decades, and thinks that it was more acceptable in the past.
Extreme?
"Parents nowadays will think that it's meaningless, but it serves to teach the students that they did something wrong," he said.
Mr Ho said parents nowadays are overprotective.
But, he added, that writing 1,000 lines was extreme. "A couple of hundred would be more acceptable," he said.
Mr Ho thinks that parents and teachers should work together in this case.
"Perhaps a verbal warning will be better for the first time. If the problem persists, maybe the teachers can punish the students by asking them to write lines," he said.
"If the parents object to the punishment, the school should ask them what appropriate punishment should be given."
In response to TNP queries, the Ministry of Education (MOE) said all teachers have a role in disciplining and teaching values. Punishment is always complemented with counselling and followup guidance.
MOE provides schools with a set of guidelines in the management of discipline, such as the objectives of discipline and communication of rules.
Schools may formulate their own rules, including disciplinary action for the management of students within these guidelines, it said.